Advancing Human Development through the Journalism of Kofi Adu Domfeh!

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Search This Blog

Loading...

Monday, December 17, 2012

Ghana’s power company expands network to deliver on services

The
customer population and demand for electricity services in the country are
increasingly outpacing the response rate of power providers to meet the needs.

In
recognition of this rapidity in demand, the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG)
says it is embarking on a number of projects geared towards providing quality
and sustainable services to customers.

Managing
Director, William Hutton-Mensah, has re-echoed the company’s focus on four
thematic areas to ensure profitability and increase customer service delivery.

These include
improvement in supply reliability and quality; improvement in revenue collection;
improvement in customer service; and reduction in system loses.

According
to the ECG boss, as at end of 2011, the level of loses stood at 27.2 percent but
reduced to 21.3 percent as at September 2012, through the company’s thorough enumeration
of streetlight installations in the country and a scientific approach to loss
reduction programme.

Cable
theft, he added, also results in financial loss to the company, depriving the ECG
of money that could have been invested in putting up additional sub-stations,
expanding facilities and upgrading network lines to increase voltage and
service to clients.

Mr.
Hutton-Mensah concedes the load shedding exercise and other bottlenecks in
distribution network have caused inconveniences to consumers in the cause of
this year.

He however
said the company is not relenting in the provision of quality, reliable and
safe electricity services to support socio-economic growth and development,
whilst expecting customers to indulge in prompt payment of bills and not in
illegal connections.

As part
of its resolve to ensure customers get the best of care, the ECG has commissioned
a Gh₵1.3 million Ayigya District office complex in the Ashanti region,
constructed and furnished from the company’s internally generated fund.

Ashanti
East Regional Manager of ECG, Abdulai Kurah, noted that the Ayigya district is
the biggest among the seven ECG districts in the regions, serving close to 40
thousand customers in 29 communities in and around Kumasi.

“The
colossal amount that we put into this project will go to waste if it doesn’t
match a change in our attitude towards our customers in our work; that to us is
paramount”, stated Mr. Hutton-Mensah.

According
to him, the company has already paid for counterpart funding for the
construction of other five district offices and four customer service centres
in the Ashanti region.

The
projects, funded by donor partners, including the World Bank, have taken off at
Abuakwa, New Edubiase, Asokwa, Mamponteng Kwabre and Suame. The customer
service centres will be sited at Pankrono, Juaso, Ejisu and Gyinase.

From
early 2013, the company will also internally fund the construction of modern
storage facilities for the Ashanti East and West regions, which the MD said
will ease access to installation materials.

“By the
end of next year, we hope to get to a situation in this company where all
materials, including meters, will be available at our district stores so that
as soon as a customer pays his or her capital contribution for a new service or
separate meter, there should be all the requisite materials ready at that
particular district for that service to be done” assured Mr. Hutton-Mensah.

This, he
said, will be in addition to construction of a second bulk supply point for
Kumasi, injection of transformers on the network, upgrading of sub-stations in
the region and construction of offices for the Obuasi and Konongo districts, as
well as plans to build other facilities at Asante Mampong, Bekwai, Dunkwa,
Offinso, Agona and Adansi-Asokwa.

“We want
to assure our cherished customers in Ashanti region that we as a company hold
the fact that we want to ensure that they get better service from us and
because of that we’re embarking on these projects and hope to do more of them
in the coming years”, the ECG Manager said.

Mr.
Hutton-Mensah urged company workers to uphold high professionalism in their
relations with clients as ECG promotes its corporate vision to be among leading
power distribution companies in Africa.

APO Energy Media Awards 2015 - Dubai

K.A.D Profile

Kofi Adu Domfeh is a Development Journalist, Social Entrepreneur & Human Rights Promoter. He works with The Multimedia Group in Ghana as an Assisting News Editor.
He has corresponded for international media organizations for radio and online feature reporting.
His reporting interests are in green economy, agriculture, environment and science - covering assignments in parts of the world.
He was selected among the TwentyTen Dream Team of 18 African Journalists to go to the football World Cup in South Africa to report on Sports & Society.
Domfeh is a Fellow of Africa Means Business (AMB), the Thomson Reuters Foundation and a Mentor under the John Templeton Foundation’s Biosciences for Farming in Africa (B4F4) Fellowship.
Domfeh is the 2015 Winner of the APO Energy Media Awards. In 2014, he emerged Winner of the African Climate Change and Environment Reporting (ACCER) Awards. He was 3rd Best of the same Awards in 2013.
He holds a B.A Degree in Sociology and Social Work, Diploma in Journalism and others in Business and ICT. He has also had training from UNITAR, Thomson Reuters Foundation and WRENmedia UK.
His blog is to upscale development journalism in Africa.